Guys,
I fear that I may have gotten over my head, and made a huge mistake.
I’ve acquired a decent cache of monotype type letter blocks, and attempted to melt and make mini muffin ingots.
The melt was very odd…. To me…. compared to what I’ve seen with much lower/ softer alloys.
There was a very thick, dense layer on top, that resembled some kind of spaceman suit bright aluminum colored…. “Pudding” for lack of better word. I kept conducting saw dust, and wax fluxing and skimming, until it was gone, and just a very fluid “normal” looking shiny lead melt remained.
I ladled this into mini muffin tins.
As these muffins cooled, they took on a very very dull aluminum look, a color I’m not so experienced to recognize. So I’m a little on edge and anxious, that I’ve ruined my monotype.
I’m cleaning up, and I went to move the coffee can that I used for the skimmins, and that sucker is heavy! I tapped the deposits with my skimming ladle, and it is rock solid.
Temp of melt stayed in 600-780 F range. It was difficult to control today, due to wind.
Did I skim off good stuff, that should have remained ?
EDIT: I took the can of skimmings, and fired it again, I did get a lot of molten metal, back out of it. I actually got almost a full pan worth of muffins, back from it. They look different, than all the rest. The first ones were a dull aluminum color, these from skimming can, are the color of polished steel and shiny.
So I think I may have separated out something, then reclaimed it.